Old Regime Rules

Wargaming
must be easy, fun, balanced most of the time, visually striking and
companionable. These five principles have guided my forty years in historical
miniatures tabletop games, as you will find in the rules available here. Plus
each set is loaded with historical information.

I’ve
raised Ancient Romans, 1066 Normans and Saxons, Royalists and
Parliamentarians, 1680s combatants for Louis XIV, Seven Years’ War armies for
Europe and North America, American War of Independence lads, Napoleonics of
course, Rebs and Federals, Imperials and native foes for Zululand, The Sudan
and Northwest Frontier plus WWII armor for the early Western Desert. At sea
I’ve built and steered ships of the English Civil War, the early
19th Century, the American Civil War and WWI.

One
can do all this in forty years like a butterfly changing from one intoxicating
flower to another. Yet The Seven Years’ War has remained my primary and
constant interest since 1965. This also developed into directing The Seven
Years’ War Association till 1992. I also enjoy writing as evidenced by
articles in The Fusilier, Wargamer’s Digest, Courier,
MWAN and Battlegames. It seems natural then that I also wrote
tabletop rules for all of us. My greatest hobby satisfactions are historical
miniatures games with companionable friends, crafting rules and game
preparation.

In
the early 1970s, dissimilar weapons of the pike and shot era fascinated me.
Facilitating this were charming English Civil War Hinchliffe miniatures,
Cavaliers and Roundheads and my recent university studies. Immersing
myself in increasing numbers of new books about the ECW, especially Brigadier
Peter Young’s, I started raising Royalists and Parliamentarians. Wargamer’s
Guide To The English Civil War came into being as a result of all that
fun, color and curious 17th Century doctrine. Characters such as
Prince Rupert helped fuel my imagination too.

At
an earlier time, I could not understand a history teacher saying, how
Prussia’s Frederick The Great fought a war for seven years at 1:3 odds and
won. Combining that improbability with a fascination for 18th
Century garments and my first miniatures catalog from Jack Scruby, I was off
and running to learn about and do battles of The Seven Years’ War. Brigadier
Peter Young and Lt. Col. James Lawford’s charming CHARGE! Or How To Play
Wargames came first. Later I branched off as gamers inevitably do. In the
early 1980s, remembering my first love, I tried my hand at producing a
Charge-like but different system for The French and Indian War. This is how
Drums Of War Along The Mohawk came to be published in 1986 after years
of development and play testing. Do some of you remember Fort Hal? Just keep
the gate closed! But, nobody did.

Now armed with the latest
research, Batailles de l´Ancien Régime 1740-1763, (BAR) is the
culmination of forty years of questing for answers about The Seven Years’ War.
BAR returns to Europe maintaining the more convenient and interesting
multi-brigade level systems of my other rules. For it is at the brigade level
that we have the most awareness, satisfaction and fun with tactics, drill and
striking visual aspects of the mid 18th Century. BAR
emphasizes user-friendly flexibilities blended with maxims and etiquettes to
run wargames of the most fun, easy, historical and companionable
sort.